Peter Townsend

Peter Wooldridge Townsend (22 November 1914-19 June 1995) was a British Royal Air Force officer and flying ace during World War II. He also served as equerry (personal attendant) to King George VI of Britain from 1944 to 1952 and under Queen Elizabeth II of Britain from 1952 to 1953.

Biography
Peter Wooldridge Townsend was born in Rangoon, Burma, British Raj on 22 November 1914, the son of a British Army colonel. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1933, and he rose to the rank of flight lieutenant in 1939. On 3 February 1940, he was one of three RAF pilots to shoot down the first aircraft over English soil when he assisted in the shootdown of a German Luftwaffe plane near Whitby, North Yorkshire at the start of World War II. During the Battle of Britain, Townsend became one of the RAF's most capable squadron leaders, and he became an acting wing commander in the summer of 1941. He destroyed nine planes himself, assisted with the destruction of two enemy planes, and damaged four planes. In 1944, Townsend was appointed temporary equerry to King George VI of Britain, and his appointment was made permanent that same year. In 1949, he was formally promoted to wing commander, and he became Deputy Master of the Household in August 1950, Comptroller to Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1952, and guard captain in 1953, the same year as his resignation. Townsend began a love affair with Princess Margaret at the same time, and he was later posted to Brussels, Belgium by the military, which saw their relationship as scandalous. There, he married a Belgian woman who bore a striking resemblance to the princess, and he died in Saint-Leger-en-Yvelines, France in 1995 at the age of 80.